3 ms·

Sassafrass isn't restricted because of cancer risk, it's restricted because it can be used as a precursor to MDMA (ecstasy).

• jessaustin 11y ago
  Well it is a giant cancer risk. It contains large amounts of safrole and other carcinogenic compounds. When it was banned, in 1960 [0], MDMA wasn't yet as much of a "club drug" as it later became. [0] https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/content/profiles/safrole.pdf https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/content/profiles/safrole.p...
  • Zigurd 11y ago
    The article appears to contradict that sassfras contains large amounts of safrole: >Safrole may be ingested in edible spices, including sassafras, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, star anise, ginger, black and white pepper, and from chewing betel quid; all of these substances contain naturally occurring safrole at low levels (IARC 1976, Archer and Jones 2002, HSDB 2009). Safrole is also present in herbal products derived from the sassafras tree, including the creole herb gumbo filé (Carlson and Thompson 1997). The concentration of safrole can be reduced during the cooking process (Farag and Abo-Zeid 1997). Based on common ingestion patterns, the estimated daily intake of safrole is 0.3 mg (Rietjens et al. 2005).
• Alex3917 11y ago
  Also, does the author seriously not realize that sassafrass grows in pretty much every single park in the city? Not sure if he's just trolling for page views or what.
• aqwwe 11y ago
  it's only restricted for being used in commercial foods/drinks... you can buy some on Ebay ... or grow some wherever the climate is good for it